As known to one of ordinary skill in the art, there has been a trend to provide increasingly complex radar and communications systems and circuits including radio frequency (RF) circuits such as transmit-receive modules. There has also been a trend to provide such systems, circuits and modules as compact, low cost systems, circuits and modules.
Conventional radar systems include array antenna systems utilizing a variety of different RF, digital and power conditioning and supply circuitry. Such circuitry typically includes, but is not limited to, transmit/receive (TR) modules, data multiplexer/demultiplexer (MUX-DEMUX) modules and DC-DC converter modules. The number of circuits or modules used in such systems results in a large number of interconnections between modules, circuits and devices. Consequently, the systems are typically large, time consuming to assemble, and expensive. This is particularly true with respect to a class of radar systems that include active electronically scanned antenna systems (AESA).
As is understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, the transmit/receive modules are an important component of an AESA system. In general , the T/R modules arc quite significant in determining radar microwave performance, cost, and interface requirements. For example, conventional T/R modules have relatively high assembly costs, are labor intensive to assemble, have limited yield rates, have significant interconnection losses, are subject to cross coupling, and have significant thermal management considerations.
It would, therefore, be desirable to provide a radar system having transmit/receive modules in the form of a solid interface module having a ball grid array structure that integrates microwave, logic and thermal connections.